SHANGHAI, Oct. 18 -- Retail sales of toys in China's domestic market reached 88.31 billion yuan (about 12 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022, an increase of 3.3 percent compared to the previous year.

The figure was released on Tuesday at the ongoing China Toy Expo, being held in Shanghai.

Last year, toy (excluding games) exports reached 48.36 billion U.S. dollars, recording a 5.6 percent increase compared to the previous year.

Among the major export markets for Chinese toys, Japan moved up from third place to second spot in 2022, with an export value of 2.41 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 33.8 percent over the previous year.

The United States continued to be China's largest toy export market, with an export value of 13.08 billion U.S. dollars, but this was a 2.9 percent decrease compared to a year earlier.

In the Chinese domestic market, sales of both baby bottles and children's strollers achieved growth last year, according to the China Toy and Juvenile Products Association, with retail sales totaling 6.65 billion yuan and 14.78 billion yuan, respectively, representing slight increases of 1.1 percent and 1.9 percent over the previous year.

In 2022, China's exports of children's strollers reached 1.67 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 12.5 percent compared to 2021.